The Impact player rule in IPL

IPL has been creative enough and has garnered interest among all the Domestic Cricket Leagues that happen across the world. The Impact Player Rule was one such creative idea that was implemented by IPL-2023. It is similar to the substitutes that football teams add in the middle of the match to increase leverage or tactical advantage. The main motive behind adding this Impact Player Rule is to give tactical depth to the game, increase domestic talent (because of the overseas player limit explained below).

During the start of the match while toss, the playing sides announce their playing XI. Along with these 11 players they also announce 4 substitutes as well. During the match, out of these 4, they can bring one as an impact player. He can bat and bowl.

Certain rules to follow

• The impact player if the bowling/batting team decide to use, must be brought before the end of 14th over. The captain or team manager notifies the 4th umpire/on-field umpire when they decide to bring in the Impact Player.
• If your team is batting, you must bring in the Impact Player before the 14th over ends (i.e., before the start of the 15th over). -However, if the Impact Player is a bowler or used while bowling, this restriction does not apply — he can be brought in even during the second innings or any time before the last over starts.

However there are some limitations to nominate the subs. If the team is playing with 4 overseas players, then the impact player must be Indian. If the team has less than 4 overseas players then, the impact player can be overseas player. Why 4? The General rule of IPL is that, any team cannot have more than 4 overseas players in playing XI. This rule gives chance to budding cricketers to showcase their talent ensuring fair competition.

Let’s get this into our minds with an example. MI vs RCB. Both have announced their playing XI along with 4subs. Both teams are playing with 4overseas players. MI won the toss and chose to bat first. Now RCB will rest a batsman, during their bowling simce they want more bowling options. Let’s say they rest Maxwell during bowling and play with 5 bowlers. Now the number of overseas players in RCB side is 3, since Maxwell is rested. Assume MI has scored 180+ runs and in the Chase, RCB needs a strong batting lineup hence Maxwell will be brought in as an impact player. So with the Impact player rule, RCB has bowled with 5 bowlers and during the batting, they rest one bowler and bring in a batsman to Chase the target without violating the 4 overseas players rule.

So the Impact player rule adds 3 benefits - during bowling adding an extra bowler or during chasing, rest the extra bowler and bringing in the rested batsman as the Impact player. Second, it ensures domestic talent is utilised ensuring fair representation and competition across all the teams. Thirdly, adding tactical leverage and unpredictability because fans love it!!